LIFE AFTER DEATH

GOOD news about the future of Death, Sex & Money!

I’ve got some good news: we get to keep making Death, Sex & Money!

The show and I are joining Slate and we will be back making new episodes for you soon. If you’re not already aware, Slate is a media company that’s been making high-quality, impactful journalism for decades. All our archives are moving over to Slate and you don’t need to do anything to get new episodes other than stay subscribed. When we have episodes to share in a few months, they will show up right in your feed, where they always have been.

I have two requests for you in the meantime:

1. Keep reading this newsletter and share it with people in your life who like Death, Sex & Money — or you think would if they knew about it. I want to stay in touch and I also want include you as we as we plot out our new episodes and rearticulate our show’s mission. I expect to come to you with ideas and questions.

2. Go to Apple Podcasts and, in a review, tell me your favorite episode(s) of Death, Sex & Money. The reason for this is two-fold. It will tell me which episodes have stuck with you and feel like make up the essence of what we do, and also, it will serve as a guide for new listeners who are just finding us as we put down roots in our new home at Slate. (Even if you don’t regularly listen to podcasts through Apple, please head over and do this, because many of our listeners find us there! You can do it on the app on your phone or from your desktop, go here and click on “listen on Apple Podcasts.” )

And now, for the back story on how this happened:

As you may know, in early October, the Death, Sex & Money team learned that due to budget cuts at WNYC, the way we had made the show since 2014 was coming to an end at the close of 2023. When I learned this news, I had a lot of questions. What was happening to my job? How would I pay for my family, my house, my life? These were real and sharp questions, and I did my level best to breathe through them when they popped up.

Alongside occasional panic, I noticed other surprising feelings: curiosity, exhilaration, some relief even. What were these about, I wondered? These were not responsible feelings for a mother of two with a mortgage who was facing unemployment! But this end of Death, Sex & Money at WNYC was an external force giving me permission to take a break, reevaluate and reset. I had been needing that for a few years. Continually making a show for nearly a decade, pausing only to take maternity leaves (which is not a pause really), had left me a little frayed creatively. I also knew that the universe of podcasting had radically changed around me since we started the show in 2014, and I wanted to know more about how people were doing it now.

So, I zoomed and talked with nearly everyone I know in podcasting. I learned a lot about the business side and their acronyms: GMs (guaranteed minimums!), P&L (profit and loss!), BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated settlement!). I talked with people who owned their own shows and managed their own media companies. I also talked to people who work inside companies about the joys of coworkers and not needing to be singularly responsible for meeting payroll. And I talked with media company bosses about the advertising market, listener support revenue and production budgets. Speaking of budgets, I figured out pretty quickly I did not want to keep making the show if I had to do it without the help of the show’s talented producers — and I couldn’t if I tried! They have built this show and are responsible for its spirit and its sound.

This transition also pushed me to reflect on what has fed me in my work historically and where I want and need to stretch. Part of that is about taste and creative appetite, and part of that for me is also about journalistic service. I don’t quite know how yet, but I feel compelled to do more to put the shoulder to the wheel and help shore up our democracy and sense of community at a time of so much disconnection and mistrust.

All this led to Slate.

Slate is a journalism company, which I realized is very important to me. People come to podcasting from lots of different backgrounds, but for me, it’s always been a journalistic pursuit. That’s core to my identity. I like my primary objective in an interview to be seeking, nudging for clarity, complicating — not persuading, or approaching the work as solely entertainment.

Slate has been making podcasts for a very long time — longer than most! — and Slate is also still launching new shows. They make podcasts in a lot of different ways — there are highly acclaimed produced series like Decoder Ring and Slow Burn, chat shows like Political Gabfest and Culture Gabfest, advice shows Dear Prudence, and daily news shows like What Next. It appealed to me that they both have a mature audio business and also still feel nimble. After 2023, I will tell you, it feels good partnering up with a place that feels both solid and innovative.

And that brings me to my final conclusion so far: I like the idea of working for a company.

This is not how everyone likes to work. Many of my podcasting colleagues have made rich and fulfilling careers owning their own businesses and working for themselves. I’ve often felt envious of their freedom, and their courage. But then on one of my many phone calls with a colleague, I learned about the term intrapreneur, and this felt like a jacket that fit. I do like to experiment and challenge myself and try new things, and I also really love coworkers and being part of a shared company mission. I like being surrounded by veterans with institutional memory and less experienced people looking for their first shots. It’s why public media felt like home for so long. I know that institutions can let us down, but I also believe that healthy journalistic institutions are vital to a thriving society. Intrapreneur-ing seems to capture this. I am both a joiner and a rebel. I loved the collegiality of summer camp as a kid, and would also steal time between games and activities to make mixed tapes of punk music alone on my tent bed.

So, that’s the news for now. I am still not working for a bit, taking myself on artist dates, resting, and spending time with some of the books you recommended in emails and the comments here. I whipped through Tom Lake, currently loving Hua Hsu’s memoir Stay True which unfolds in my current home in Berkeley.

Thank you for all your notes and support through these last few months. They’ve meant to me.

More soon —

Anna